The two-year-old VAI is the second facility awarded Platinum LEED for new construction in the state, and one of a dozen labs across the country to be highlighted for sustainable building practices in the field of biomedical research.

Mayor George Heartwell called the accomplishment a fitting way to celebrate Earth Day.

“As a leader of innovative biomedical research located in the heart of Grand Rapids’ Medical Mile, Van Andel Institute’s LEED Platinum status continues the city’s national leadership role as an innovator in the field of sustainable development and green building design,” Heartwell said.

Intelligent building design features include CO2 sensors throughout the building that detect the presence of people and automatically adjust room ventilation rates.

The Institute’s pledge to be a leader in sustainable building practices mirrors that of the region and Grand Rapids. The city leads the nation in the percentage of completed LEED projects, and is one of just two cities in the top thirty LEED cities in the nation with a population under 200,000 inhabitants.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Platinum is the highest of four possible levels of certification.

“Van Andel Institute’s Phase II building is innovative in design, and incorporates a multitude of green initiatives beyond what seemed possible for a research institute just a few short years ago,” said VAI Chairman and CEO David Van Andel. "And while LEED Platinum certification is a tremendously gratifying accomplishment, we set out from the very beginning to be a leader in terms of sustainable building practices because we knew that it is the right things to do.”